Another story The original noun STORY is the one meaning connected account or narration of some happening. It dates from early Middle English and originally meant narrative of important events or celebrated persons of the past -- a sense now more associated with HISTORY. It comes from Old French estorie, from Late Latin storia (French tended to add an e- to words beginning in st-), which is shortened from Latin historia -- the source of HISTORY. HISTORY itself got into English about 200 years after STORY. Its form was closer to the classical original, but originally its sense was closer to the modern meaning of STORY: relation of incidents (true or false). Latin historia could mean narrative of past events, but also tale, story. It comes from Greek historia, which was more closely associated with factual accounts of the past than either the Latin or the medieval words. Greek historia was a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of ones inquiries. It is derived from a verb, historein to inquire, from the PIE root *weid- to know, literally to see. In Middle English, HISTORY was not differentiated from STORY. HISTORY in English in the sense of record of past events probably was first attested late 15c. STORY as recital of true events is first recorded late 14c. in English, and as narrative of fictitious events meant to entertain from c.1500. STORY and HISTORY finally fully differentiated in form and sense, with the senses flipped from where they began, in the 1500s. The other STORY, floor of a building, is the same noun, from Anglo-Latin historia floor of a building, also picture, from Latin historia. The reason for this use is not entirely clear, but the most likely explanation is that the floors were so called because the front of buildings in the Middle Ages often were decorated with rows of painted windows [Barnhart].
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 10:00:01 +0000
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